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Now On View

Adam Pendleton

Elements of Me

February 13 - November 15, 2020
Fenway Gallery

Adam Pendleton’s exhibition considers the relations between (geometric) abstraction, blackness, and languages of collectivity. Three basic shapes—square, triangle, and circle—are the refrains in this room-sized installation.

Pendleton is a New York-based artist known for work animated by what the artist calls “Black Dada,” a critical articulation of blackness, abstraction, and the avant-garde. Drawing from an archive of language and images, Pendleton makes conceptually rigorous and formally inventive paintings, collages, videos, and installations that insert his work into broader conversations about history and contemporary culture. His work is held in public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and Tate, London, among others.

Elements of Me is one of three exhibitions opening this season—along with Boston's Apollo and The Strange Taxi, Stretched. Each explore race and representation, while delving into Black and brown lived experiences to expand the story of American art. 

Adam Pendleton's Elements of Me catalogue cover

Exhibition Catalogue

This artist’s book was published in conjunction with this exhibition. In the installation, three primary shapes—square, triangle, and circle—produce regions of abstract space. On the page, these regions exist as unprinted “neutral” areas in dialogue with the source materials for the artist’s works on Mylar and mirror-polished steel. Concealed or masked, the drawings, paintings, and photocopies refuse straightforward legibility, gently probing the history of visual display and the shifting statuses of foreground and background.

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About the Artist

Adam Pendleton's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, notably at the Walker Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Studio Museum, New York; the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; and the Tate Liverpool. Biennials and exhibitions include Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, Greater New York, MoMA/PS1, Long Island City, New York; The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York; Performa 07, New York; Manifesta 7, Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy; Object, The Undeniable Success of Operations, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Hey Hey Glossolalia, Creative Time, New York; Manifesto Marathon at The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Future as Disruption, The Kitchen, New York; Talk Show, ICA, London; Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock n' Roll since 1967, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy, High Museum, Atlanta; and ELTDK Amsterdama three-part exhibition organized by Kunstverein and de Appel, Amsterdam in 2009.